Fallen From Grace
by Bluetory
Summary: Clary has been having nightmares. Unnatural, dark nightmares that wake her every night in fear. They're centered around a strange rune that even she cannot recognize. As they become more exquisite, everything comes together and the story begins to unfold.
1. Prologue

**A/N: I had a new idea. I hope you like it; I spent some time drafting it, so that the plot would be enjoyable.**

**.o**

The dreams were frighteningly similar each night.

It was like a bad TV programme on repeat, every night dragging on, waking up in cold sweat, with tears blurring her vision, and a muted scream building up in her throat.

A rustle of feathers, wings flapping, a child's scream, that scraped at the edges of her mind with painful white noise, and then nothing, for a while, at least.

Usually it was just fragments of a whole thing, shattered pieces of a mirror, strange, multicoloured kaleidoscopes of light, splayed randomly, seemingly senseless – but it always ended the same.

She saw herself, smiling, and letting go of a long angular stick, which shape could only have been of a stele, and turning around. Her eyes scared her. The expression was empty, devoid of emotion, and her eyes appeared to have no pupils, depleted coal black, like a sharks.

The dream version of her gave a humourless smile, and stepped aside.

On the wall cast in shadow behind her, a black rune was carefully carved, not drawn, like the other marks were, but carved into the stone – maybe burnt as explanation for the black colour. Her eyes passed over the edges, it felt wrong somehow, to look into the centre, but it was unlike her not to try– and she could feel her vision, her brain whirr harder, and sweat beginning to form, a stifling heat _everywhere_, but there was something, _something _she needed to do.

She forced herself to look, and suddenly, it was as if a switch had been flicked. She felt herself _drawn _to the rune.

She let her eyes focus onto the swirling, sweeping patterns of the mark, and let herself take it all in and–

Her eyes snapped open.

She was breathing hard, clutching her duvet as if it was a life support jacket. After the immediate fear, a sense of overwhelming disappointment overtook her, and she let out a sigh. Light was already coming through the sides o her window, where her curtain could not quite cover. With arising sense of unease, she turned her head, catching the red light of her bedside LED clock. 02:31AM. She groaned.

But… at least she has gotten closer to actually seeing what the rune was this time. Maybe next time it would be–

With a flinch, she caught herself just in time, and mentally scolded herself.

_You've been watching too many horror films again_, she told herself for the hundredth time, _go back to sleep._

She rolled over, with a shaking hand, brushed a few irritating sweat soaked strands of hair out of her eyes and attempted to fall back into the heavenly clutches of sleep. It had been like this for too long. A feeling of panic rose up in her chest, and she rolled over again, restlessly.

Every night, _every god damned night_ she–

_Shut up. That's pathetic. It's nothing to be scared of… just go back to sleep. Dreams mean nothing; you're a Shadowhunter, remember? If a six foot tall demon can't kill you, how can a dream?_

"It can't." She murmured, in a strong attempt to console herself. "You're just being stupid now."

Clearing her mind of anything – everything, she covered her face with both arms in attempt to block out any excess light, and let out a shaky breath.

Clarissa Fray shut her eyes as tight as she could manage, but she hardly felt sleepy anymore.

_It's just a dream_, she told herself.

_It's bigger than that…_ A sudden, small smug voice, somewhere deep inside her head chided, _much bigger and you know it._

"_No." _She whispered_. "It's just a dream."_

**Did you like my first attempt? Even if you didn't, please leave a review so I can improve later on. None of the proper action has begun yet, so don't worry, it isn't all this boring…**


	2. The Beginning

**A/N: I'm eating apple and cinnamon flavoured yogurt as I write this, so this chapter might be a little… cinnamon flavoured…**

**If you have been on my profile, you would have read my note about this story, but I figured it would be better if I actually put it on here… XD**

- I haven't read _City of Fallen Angels_ yet, so I don't know what that's like and I didn't want to read any spoilers because I want to properly read the book, but looking at the title, I'm concerned that my plot might overlap/contradict with the plot of the book XD

Please imagine that in my fanfic, it does not follow onto the _City of Fallen Angels_, and instead takes another path. ^^; Thanks

**Disclaimer (if it's a fanfiction site, why do I need disclaimers?): I don't own the Mortal Instruments. **

**Chapter 1****: The Beginning**

"… While English Prime Minister David Cameron has been pressing forwards firms to the banks' recent closure…"

Clary switched the TV channel again, in restlessness rather than actually looking. She yawned and drained her third cup of coffee that morning. Rubbing her eyes, after a failed moment of consideration and without bothering to sweep the cluttered mess of books and loose sheets of paper in front of her, she slumped her head down on the kitchen table with a groan.

She heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and the squeak of the kitchen door as it swung open. "Hey kiddo," Luke Garroway ruffled her hair and swept past her towards the cupboards, "Late night?"

"Yeah," She yawned again and sat back up, stretching, "Morning Luke."

There was a sound of what seemed like a mini avalanche in the kitchen, "Oops…" She heard Luke murmur, "I really do need to get these cupboards sorted out…" Clary turned round to see Luke, his hair in a curled mess and his glasses askew, surrounded ankle deep in half empty pasta packets and a variety of tins and boxes. He turned to give her an abashed smile. He held up a dented tin of tomato sauce. "Pastas on tonight, amigos! Am I obliged to assure that you shall attend?"

Clary grinned at him apologetically, "Sorry Luke, I'm eating out with Simon tonight. I promised ages ago. And amigo is Spanish… Pasta is Italian."

"Oh right, so bon appetite?"

She grinned, "No Luke-"

"Morning Luke, morning Clary!" Jocelyn Fray walked in, fully dressed in a tidy white blouse and black trousers (unlike Clary who had half her uniform on, and Luke who was still in PJs), and set about opening the windows. She eyed the mess that Luke had made on the floor around him and raised an eyebrow, "I take it that that's another piece from your magnificent artwork gallery and not just another mess I'm going to have to clean up along with the rest of your house?"

"Of course," He smiled wanly, "I take just after you." At her accusing stare, he added quickly, "I'll clean it up myself, of course!"

Jocelyn laughed and sat down next to Clary and poured herself a cup of tea. There was a pause of Luke grumbling and giving a half hearted attempt at sorting out the cluttered floor around him, and the TV blaring out some weird folk music that looked like it had come from the prehistoric era. At least it wasn't the news this time. Clary could not look at the news the same way again. Politics and sports just seemed like a whole different world from her, and at every big scale incident, she could not help but wonder if it was really terrorist attacks, a plague or a mistake in the machinery. Maybe it was demons. It gave her an uneasy feeling. It was a weird thought; that the Shadowhunter world could overlap outside the realms that she was so used to seeing them in. The institute, Idris… It had done before, but the thought was still alien to her. She wondered if Jace and the others ever had these thoughts, as they watched the news, always doubting, always questioning… _Wait…_ She frowned to herself, and felt silly for thinking it. _Of course they wouldn't. They don't even _watch_ the news. Jace didn't even know what eBay was, for God's sake…_ She felt herself smile a little at Jace's name though. She couldn't wait to see him again. It had actually worked out well, and for a week after, all she could think about was–

"Clary."

Her mum's voice brought her back into reality with a start, and she looked up quickly. "Yes?"

"Clary, I want to know what this is about." She spoke softly, so even Clary, who was sitting beside her, had to strain to catch what she was saying. Clary bit her lip, and a strange mixture of unease and upset clutched at her heart. "All of this. I know you're not sleeping properly, you're always so tired, and all of these lapses in concentration. Your teachers at school have called me up to tell me that your grades are going to drop if this continues, and although you're a Shadowhunter now, you live in this world, and you've still got work hard here, and earn a good place in society. I know it's not the time difference from Idris. I just want you to know that, although I know you wouldn't lie to me. It's been two weeks since we've got back! You've missed school for 4 weeks now, and you just got back to school last week. You've had enough time to recover."

On any other day before she'd experienced what she had, and gone to Idris and back, Clary would have turned her nose up at a talk like this, but times had changed. She bit her lip, and swung her legs, unsure. What could she say? That she'd been having weird dreams? Although her mum had been happier on their return – she and Luke were already planning the place and time for their wedding in the immediate future – she still bore signs of bags under her eyes, and now she'd gotten a new full time job at an office, stress was inevitable. She didn't want to cause her anymore upset or confusion. They were just dreams. No big deal. It was nothing to get worried about.

Her expression softened, and she gave Clary a concerned look. "Honey, if you want to talk, I'd gladly listen." She reached out and folded her fingers lovingly around her daughter's hand.

Clary thought hard. What should she say now? Homework? Too obvious a choice. Friends? What friends? Simon? What about Si-

"Is it about Jace?" Jocelyn frowned and leaned closer in, "I saw that smile on your face earlier on. You know, I recognise that smile" She gave a small grin, "I used to smile like that when I thought about Valentine years and years ago…"

"Ew, mum." Clary wrinkled her nose, "Valentine? Seriously?" Despite the carefree tone she put on, she felt a sense of relief. If she wanted to think it was Jace, all the better. It partially true, what she said anyway. She _was_ thinking about Jace… The thought jogged her memory of the personality of the Faerie Queen. She told only the partial truth, just like what Clary was doing now… She wondered if she was turning into one of the Fair Folk herself. The thought gave an extreme sense of the creeps.

Her mum laughed, "I was younger then… and naïve."

"Yeah. Whatever you say." Clary stuck her tongue out and got up, picking up her school bag, wrestling a brush through her hair and putting a school jumper on. She glanced at the clock on the table leaning against a stack of books, "I'm going to have to go to school now, or I'm going to be late."

"So do I, actually." Jocelyn smiled, put on her jacket and picked up her handbag. "We'll talk later okay?"

Clary nodded and glanced at Luke who had finally finished clearing up the mess on the floor, and was now rifling through a variety of boxes on the shelf in front of him. He was muttering to himself about how he had 'left this house for a few weeks and it becomes like this'. Clary grinned. "Bye Luke!" She called. Jocelyn did the same.

Luke replied something unintelligible and waved vaguely in reply. Clary smiled, and stepped out of the front door, shutting it behind her and Jocelyn.

"Hey…" He said suddenly, turning and holding up an empty pot of something, "Why is my coffee pot empty? I only just brought a new box the day before yesterday! How many cups of coffee exactly did you–"

He trailed off into silence at the empty room.

"Nevermind," He shrugged and went back to rifling through the heap of boxes.

**XxXxX**

"Simon!" She finally drew to a stop, bent over and panting at his front gate. Simon was sitting on the stone wall that surrounded his garden.

"Hey Clary," He gave a big grin and dropped down to stand beside her, "I was beginning to worry that you weren't coming."

"I'm sorry, I lost track of time!" She finally regained her breath and stood up straight, rubbing her eyes, she didn't feel that sleepy anymore, but her eyelids still felt like sandpaper. "I ran here as soon as I could…"

"I can see," Simon teased her, and swung his bag over his shoulders, "And it's okay, you're forgiven. We'd better be going."

"That's easy for you to say! You're immortal now! Try being human!" Clary grinned and kept in pace with him. She could tell that he was holding back from going full speed, otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to keep up at all.

"I did. It sucked. I didn't like it."

"Ha! That's not what you told me a few weeks ago…"

"We vampires are stealthy beings that have an ever changing opinion. Weeks for you is a millisecond for me."

"Right." Clary grinned.

"You're not taking me seriously, are you? I swear down!"

"Right, whatever Simon, okay, I admit you are the higher form of life and I bow down to you, oh Lord Almighty."

Simon grinned, "Happy to be of service." They paused as they crossed a busy road. "Clary, I forgot to ask last night, you know I'm doing that exchange student thing?"

"Yes, my Lord Almighty?"

"I could get used to you calling me that" He grinned, wrinkling his nose. "Anyway," he continued, oblivious to Clary's raised-eye-browed stare, "He came last night and he was kind of quiet… So I tried to get him talking, and before you know it, I kind of invited him along for dinner with us. So um…"

Clary considered for a moment, eyes cast down.

Simon looked panicked, "Look, don't blame me; my mum put me up to it. Apparently I've been 'antisocial and cold' for the past week, and 'an interaction with the outside world could help me'. Quite frankly, the way she puts it, I don't see any real change at all."

"What? No!" It was Clary's turn to look panicked, "its fine if you bring him along! I wasn't thinking about that."

"Okay. Good." He breathed out a sigh of relief.

"So what's his name?"

Simon looked suddenly distant as he considered her question. "I don't know." He replied, his eyes glazed over, "He didn't say."

"Ha!" She grinned at him, "Nicely done, Simon." But her smile quickly faded. Something was wrong. She could feel it. "Simon?"

He blinked and looked up again. "We'd better hurry now; we're going to be seriously late…" He began to walk faster without a glance back.

Clary watched after her, and the sense of unease twined around her heart came back - although, in all honesty, it never really left.

**Can I just make this part clear before we move on: Yes I spell 'mom' as mum. I grew up in England, what do you expect? It feels weird to call someone 'mom', even if this story **_**is**_** set in America :/ You're going to have to deal with this, I'm afraid! It's my Onew Condition….**

**Also, you have to forgive my inability to be sarcastic. Simon's character is meant to be snarky and pretty geeky, but I have never played a video game in my life apart from Mario Kart DS (but that was only because my brother forced me into it) and sarcasm does not go down well with me.**

**I tell bad jokes and fail at funny. I am dreading writing about Jace now. –cries-**

**Oh and I need to bring to your attention that I will be bringing in an OC Character! (Many OC characters, actually)**

**Thank you for reading :D Sorry it's boring at the moment =_= But it had to be written! It needs climax, I say!**

**I do love reading your reviews, and I will reply to them all :D So I will thank you kindly for leaving me some? Thank you~!**


	3. My Love is Ugly

**A/N: I did some proof reading and realized that some of my grammar was really bad. :S I changed it a bit, nothing major :D**

**OoOoO**

**I just got City of Fallen Angels today… I'm not going to read it until I've finished this fic in case it puts me off :' (I'm like that…) It's going to be terrible… O_O torture, having the book but being unable to read it! XD**

**Sorry I updated later today… Yesterday, I was at the beach! I gained a few stones from when I last went TxT It was kind of depressing to say the least... –weeping-**

**Also, I know I wrote 'ClaryxJace' for my characters, and before anyone complains that there is not any actual ClaryxJace in this story, I am getting to it! Let me establish my plot first! Plot first, romance second. I'm trying to weave it in anyway… The love competition has not arrived! How can we have a decent fanfic without love competition (the book wasn't all about romance either so NERN.)?**

**ANYWAY, here is my latest Chapter~! :D I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! (I've been non-committed for these few days. =_= I'm getting a new guitar and I'm really excited. I hope it hasn't affected my writing.)**

**Chapter 2****: My Love is Ugly**

"Simon, did you do something to your hair today? It looks great!"

"Yeah, it looks amazing! You're _soo_ lucky to have skin like that… How jealous am I?"

_I don't know. How should we find out?_ Clary gave a sigh and stared daggers at the group of giggling girls and admiring boys – mostly girls – surrounding Simon as they finally entered the school grounds. The conversation between her and Simon had gradually died out after the whole 'exchange student' thing and when she had tried to press onto the subject, he had simply cut her off with a strange defiant stare and the words, "I don't know. He's weird."

_He's not the only weird one here._ She thought coldly and sat on one of the school benches a distance away from the crowd, waiting for Simon, as they had first lessons together. Ever since they had arrived back last week, after the immediate shock everyone had experienced in seeing such a change in Simon, some of the popular girls had started treating him different - much like they treated their head jock boy, the infamous Scott Preston in the year above (who also used to trip her up in primary for laughs); and now it looked like he had his own unofficial fan group.

"… And I'm going to make Simon some chocolates for his birthday! Does that sound good?" A couple of chattering girls walked past where Clary was sitting. Her ears pricked up at Simon's name for a split second from reflex, but realization soon dawned and she looked away again, annoyed at herself. _Of course they're talking about Simon now. He's their new… I don't know, Justin Bieber._ She paused for a second after making the assumption, and realized that Justin Bieber probably wasn't the best example. But the reminder that it was soon to be Simon's birthday worried her a bit. She _had_ thought about it earlier, but she hadn't even come up with a decent present yet.

"No way! That was so my idea! I'm the only one making chocolates for Simon! You can make the banners."

"I'm not making the banners! You know I can't draw... I'll just end up sticking Simon's face on."

"Why not? That's not that bad of an idea, actually, if you cut it well, I don't see why you shouldn't…"

_Oops, make that official fan group._ Clary stared after the girls in slight disbelief as they walked further away out of hearing distance. _Officially crazy._

And he even seemed to be _enjoying_ it. He was smiling (albeit nervously) at the girls and laughing with the boys and… Clary fought the urge to look away angrily. She settled with a cool stare.

It wasn't that she didn't want him to be happy, but… It was just… _It's because I'm a bit jealous_, she admitted silently. _The only person Simon's really been that happy with before is me… We had that… and now we're losing it…_

_I'll also have no one to eat lunch with. _She added as an afterthought, _and I'll have to withstand the torture of P.E alone! All because he _looks_ a little different… Seriously, I don't understand them anymore._

"Clary?" Simon had turned away from the crowd and had a pained look on his face. "You're still here? You didn't have to wait. You can go if you want! I'll see you there; I've got stuff to do first." Simon smiled at her apologetically and gave a small wave. _Sorry_ he mouthed.

She gave a small forced grin in return and went back to retrieve her bag. She couldn't help a glance back and saw the girl who was complimenting Simon earlier on his skin suddenly tilt up on her tiptoes and kiss him on the mouth. His eyes widened, and he looked taken aback, but much to Clary's extreme shock and disgust, stood still and didn't pull away. The crowd around them 'aww'ed.

'_Stuff to do'? What am I even-?_

The sound of the school bell ringing for lessons broke her away from her thoughts. Without a backwards look, she picked up her bag and stormed off alone to her first lesson.

**XxXxX**

The rest of the day flashed past. The past week had gone in a daze of sleepless nights, and today hadn't been much better.

_Actually, _she thought, _it's been worse._ She had tried to hide it, but Simon had gotten so many admirers and was so constantly surrounded that he just doesn't seem to have time for her anymore. She felt an angry flush creep into her cheeks. _What was it that he said before? 'Any girl I'm with has to take my best friend as well'? What was that about being a package deal? _She didn't mind him getting a girlfriend at all, she had distinctly remembered telling him that when they were still in Idris, but he had also promised in return that she'd still be as equally important to him as she always was.

It seemed to her that he wasn't keeping his promises.

She swerved madly to avoid a pole that she had failed to notice as she was walking. Hell, she even forgot that she _was_ walking. Not wanting to look completely retarded, she continued walking and tried to rack her brains, trying to recall why she was even here. She suppressed a yawn. The lack of sleep was really getting to her.

Oh… It was dinner with Simon wasn't it? At _Mr J Diner_. She hoped she wasn't turning prematurely old. Her memory sure gave it away if she was… She wondered why she was even going after today. _He's still my friend_, she thought, _whatever he does, he's still my best friend. Maybe we can talk everything over dinner._ She couldn't walk with him, although that had been the initial plan because he had said that he had Band practise… or something. She frowned. She couldn't recall.

But what she could recall suddenly made her current situation sound sunny. Her earlier conversation with Jace hit her like a ton of bricks. It was their phone conversation, and as ugly as it was she could not help but remember it.

She remembered getting home and feeling so sick. Knowing that she had to call someone; to tell them everything, to confess and remove the huge weight from her shoulders.

There was only one person she could really tell. And he was a thousand miles away at that point.

The phone had given two long rings before he picked up. "Hello?"

"Jace," She had breathed into the phone, relieved. She had been so scared that he wouldn't pick up, and if it wasn't now, she didn't know _when_ she could muster up the courage to tell anyone again.

"Clary? What's wrong?"

"I've got something to tell you."

"What's up? Make it quick please? I'm kind of in the middle of something…" He had said, not unkindly.

"Jace… I've been having this thing…"

"Yeah?"

"It's a recurring dream, every night and I-"

"Look, you called me up to tell me your dream? Clary, I was in a middle of a Clave meeting. Oh, and the weird guy in the funny hat is giving me the evils. Call me back some other time okay?"

"Jace-"

And he had hung up. And that was it. He had dismissed everything he had held up inside of her for the past what seemed like decade.

Biting back the urge to cry again, she shook the thought from her head angrily. Fine. If he didn't want to know, she wouldn't trouble him with it. She wouldn't trouble anyone anymore. _It _was _stupid anyway._ She realized a little sadly, _calling him up to tell him a dream. And-_ She stopped herself. She realized she was even more lost than before, during that loss of concentration.

_Back to the current situation, Clary,_ she thought to herself determinedly.

She looked around at the view around her. It just looked like any other street. A petrol station was at her right, with a couple of drunk looking biker looking men sitting on top of a parked car, a couple of randomly littered council houses and scattered trees planted here and there. Apart from the men, it seemed positively empty.

The familiarity scared her as much as the unfamiliarity.

She wondered if she should ask for directions, but decided against it. The men looked formidable and _besides_, she told herself, _I can get myself there. I've been there before._

She _had_ been to the restaurant before, a few times when she was out with Simon. It wasn't too expensive or posh and the food was great, so she liked it; and so did he. _I think._ But it looked like she had walked past a turn in the road this time. She looked hard around her again. It didn't look familiar at all, now she thought about it; so she definitely over walked.

She began to turn back, when she heard slurred voices calling out from behind her. It was those biker men. They must have caught sight of her. _This is like that scene from Twilight._ She thought, unamused. _The person writing this plot must really have no more ideas._

She stared forwards, walking faster determinedly. There was a loud crunch of gravel and then footsteps and she realized that they must be following her. Her heart missed a beat but she forced herself not to run. Sweat started prickling at the back of her neck.

"Hey!" One of the men shouted; she had worked out that there must have been at least four of them, "Wait up, we won't hurt you!" The other men dissolved into fits of drunk laughter, and a sick feeling rose up in her throat as she remembered the news reports she had watched in what seemed like a century ago about girls being attacked, raped and killed while they were out on their own. It seemed like a horrible mistake to have left alone on such a late night.

What was she _thinking_? Then again, she probably wasn't…

"Come have a drink with us, lady. It won't hurt you." They laughed again. One man had a racking cough that sounded for ages until it finally died down.

The men behind her started running. She could tell from the more regular crunch of gravel, and it sounded closer. They were drunk, but they were bigger and taller than her, and even if she ran, they would still catch up to her and then they would-

God, don't even think about it. She winced, scrunching up her face. Her nerves got the better of her, and she started running too.

It was no good. The men just ran quicker, and she could hear the soft pounding against the gravel and the panting coming closer all the time- Wait, _panting_? Her nose caught whiff of a husky smell that reminded her strongly of what Luke smelt like when he had just changed back from werewolf form_._ Something clicked in her brain and a faint feeling of dread overwhelmed her. _It can't be, could it? Werewolves?_

She let out a scream, she couldn't help it. It came of its own accord, and before she knew it, she felt the lace of her shoe catch onto something in the ground. She was running too fast to stop and she could feel herself loosing balance, and gravity pushed her forwards and-

Something soft brushed past her cheek.

The flapping of wings held her world in suspense. It was like all time had stopped. It sounded all too familiar, the same dry flutter that sounded all night, every night and then all she could see was black and white and the lights and shadows started loosing their edge and-

She fell hard head first onto the cold pavement and lay still. She was aware of the warmth of the blood trickling down her forehead. She could see crimson dripping onto her nose from the corners of her eyes, but strangely enough, it didn't hurt. Nothing hurt.

Maybe she was dead. She wanted to close her eyes on instinct. She didn't exactly rejoice to see the sight of her own blood, but strangely enough, she didn't mind this. It was actually quite nice. She didn't feel so tired anymore. There was warmth everywhere. Jace's voice was calling her name. The way he said it was amazing. She could visualize his smile, the indents in his cheeks when he smiled. It was flawless. If only he wouldn't call so loudly. It was really ruining the serenity.

Wait, _Jace was calling her name_? She blinked, plummeting back to reality.

She struggled to get up, which was hard because she was lying on her front and every bone in her body ached like she'd fallen off a cliff. It felt as if all the air had gone from her lungs, and she struggled to intake a breath. It hurt so much tears started to sting her eyes.

"Clary," The voice repeated. It didn't belong to Jace, she realized, disappointed. It had a similar pitch, and it was a boy's voice, but it definitely wasn't him. "Don't move. I think your rib's kinda broken."

The owner of the voice was leaning over her. She could see the outline of the top of his shadow in front of her.

She struggled to get words out and although the pain was so intense she thought she'd pass out, but she needed to ask. Maybe something like, _where did those men go? _Or_ how do you know my name? _Or _who are you? _Would have been good, but she found herself speaking before actually processing it with her head.

"Why were those men werewolves?" She managed, and immediately regretted it. This was probably a mundane, and they'd think she was crazy now.

"Hey… You hit your head pretty hard, right?" She was right. The boy sat forwards and lifted up the hair on her forehead, his hand brushing past her cut.

"Ow."

His hand dropped her hair immediately. "Sorry, Fray. Your foreheads kinda messed up. It's not cool. Don't worry, I called the cops and they'll be here soon. It was crazy, I'm telling you! I just came out of the restaurant thing there because I heard this scream, and no one else seemed to hear it, you know? And I walk out and I see these men running at your like, dead body on the floor. It was sick, man. I'm serious."

Her stomach dropped in sudden painful realization, if it could have dropped any further as she recognised the voice. If only God had mercy.

But she couldn't be totally sure. If she ever wanted to be proved wrong, this was the day.

The sound of sirens came quicker than she had hoped and she breathed out a sigh of relief. It was still painful, but relaxing. They screeched to a stop close to where her head was and she winced in reflex. Heavy thumping of feet against the rungs of the van sounded, it seemed everywhere, and hands gently held her around the waist and her wrists and propelled her onto a stretcher, there was an undertone of chaos and talking that she simply could not comprehend. It was slow and painful and she wanted it to stop.

And then she was hoisted up onto a strange platform that allowed her to look down onto the ground below. She caught sight of the _Mr J Diner (So I got here after all...)_ and the uniformed men and women milling around before her. She felt so high up. She wondered if this was what God felt like.

Someone was pressing something cold onto her arm, and then there was a pleasant feeling of light-headedness.

Clary began to loose consciousness, but not before she caught sight of the boy. He was shouting something at her, but she just couldn't hear. The boy? No, not just _any_ boy. A weird sense of worry crept up onto her as she remembered his name. Scott? Scott. Scott Preston. The one guy in her school that deserved the title '_Preppy Jock'_ the most.

Oh dear God.

Somehow she managed to catch the last of his words as the back of the van shut the dizzy swirling sensation of people outside. _You were epic! I'll tell everyone at school what happened. You're going to become some kickass star._

_Oh no you don't_, she replied but somehow, somehow, she didn't think he heard her. Her ability to rational thought dissolved.

The last thing she consciously saw were black feathers falling out of the sky like rain.

_Clary_, said Jace's voice.

**XxXxX**

Jace dialled her number for the twentieth time that hour.

No avail. It ended like the others.

_The person you called is not available. Please leave your message after the beep-_

He threw the phone as hard as he could at the wall. It hit with a satisfying crunch.

"Jace," Isabelle stepped in the half open door and stared around at his room. Everything that was breakable was broken and clothes and paper lay strewn on the floor of his room. She bit her lip nervously; "It's no use getting angry. It's not going to help. Alec is already out looking for her! We're just going to have to wait-"

"I can't wait! She's in danger! And it was me that put her in danger with my stupid ignorance and selfish, self-important thoughts. She called me about it! She called me about her damned, cursed dreams! And I dismissed it! We could have saved her! She could have been safe right now! What do you want me to do? I can't take this." He advanced at Isabelle who shrunk back, eyes wide with fear. He regretted it, but he just couldn't stop. "I can't just stand here." His shouting faded into a whisper and he stood back and leant against the wall of his room, sliding down until he was sitting on the floor, his head in his hands. "I can't just stand here." He repeated.

Isabelle chewed her lip, seemingly unsure of what to do. Then she carefully picked her way across the floor and knelt down beside him. "If it's any help…" She thought hard, not knowing what to say, "You're not standing," She said finally, "You're sitting now, so it's a positive change!" She smiled vibrantly.

If looks could kill, Isabelle was dead ten times over. Jace stared daggers at her.

Her smile faded. "I'm worried too Jace - just as much as you, even if you believe it or not. But it's not any of our faults. Neither of us knew. And there's nothing we can do. I want to do something too. But sometimes, the only thing we can do is sit here. And wait."

She sat next to Jace, with her back against the wall. She stared at the mess on the floor, which was so unlike the usual state of his room.

"You know, Jace, at least you love her. Your love is beautiful." She managed finally. These kind soppy things were so unlike her, but it was one of those times that it just had to be said.

"No." He didn't seem fazed by her change of character. He didn't look at her and instead stared gloomily at the opposing wall. It was ruined. "My love hurts people more than you can imagine. My love; is completely, and undeniably ugly."

**Please forgive my rubbish explanation of the scenery. I've never seen any city like NYC (is it like Shanghai or Beijing?) So I don't know what the housing and main streets look like. I live in a town in England so I'm just using my town and making it more city-like? I'm not sure. Please feel free to correct me, and I'll change it if it suits right. Thank you**

**(I'm sure there was a description somewhere in the first book, but I don't have it anymore T T)**

**Also, I just had to put some of my fan girl craze somewhere in here. :D Mr J Diner**


	4. INTERVAL

**-****INTERVAL****-**

Sorry for making this a chapter -.- I will remove it once I submit the next chapter.

My cat is actually currently having kittens (And I'm being a helpful fly swatter, I'll kill all of these jerks!), so I'm in a slightly awkward situation. But isn't life full of awkward situations like this? (Don't answer that.) I am only writing this to apologise for taking such a long time to submit the chapters. Although I am on holiday from school now, I'm not on the computer too often, and when I am, I will either be watching K-dramas or _Facebook_ing like the pro we all know I am.

Now, the realization has dawned on me that I won't be here for the next few weeks, or rather, even if I am here, I won't be writing. I'll be on holiday (and being a tour guide!). I'll put as much effort as I can into the chapters when I get back, pinky swear promise! :D There will be at least 10 Chapters for this story -.-

God, I'm sorry for rambling. T T I'm only putting this on my story because I know I'm pretty boring, and you'd have no reason to check my profile at all, so the only way I can gain your attention is to put it on here… I'm so sorry! ^^;

Thank you for reading, and sorry if that bored you to death ~_~ If you've been reading the whole thing, then thank you for sticking with me! I love you guys! -heart-

**Bluetory**~

Date: _2/8/11_


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